Hey guys, Paul here

I’ve been told that I need to tell you a little about myself. So this is that :)

I found what makes me happy. Building things. I’m not a fine craftsman, I’m an average drummer, but I’m pretty good at getting things built. Index is the outlet for this, and releasing new product after months of thinking and testing and failing is probably what I was born to do.

the first bongos, summer of 2009

Growing up, my creative engine was always running, I was always building something. In college, I started to invite my friends over for “build days.” We’d hang out on my patio making wooden-faced bongos and cajons from Lowe’s ply. It wasn’t a conscious decision to make new drums. We didn’t even need any new drums. We just wanted to get together and make stuff.

That was the root of it. It was very pure, very simple. The guys would come over in the morning and we’d work on the drums all day. Rip, chop, glue, wait, sand, face, wait, sand, seal, wait, and seal again. We learned as we went, failing plenty, building drums on the patio of my little duplex in Ruston, Louisiana.

Then I got a house with a garage in Shreveport and kept building. I had this standing deal with any of my friends – "If you need some furniture built or some cabinets or something, pay for the materials and I will help you build it.”

We did that a lot, building furniture for the fun of it, until we ran out of things to build. That’s when I founded Index.

It started in 2011 with a couple hundred bucks worth of material. I made seven cajons, and my friend Stephen Lynch helped me get them into the hands of artists. With that bit of money and almost a decade of work, I got here.

Index Drums is making high quality percussion instruments for a very small group of people, and we’re thrilled to death about it.

— My Etsy bio from 2011. Still true

With limited production capacity and an unwillingness to spend big money on patents, Index has settled into a sweet spot of specialty percussion. Working in this niche of a niche means that there’s plenty of people who don’t “get” what we’re trying to do. My test is simple: if I think it sounds good and can find 10 other people who need it, then let’s put it out. There have been alotta failed products and dead ends, but when something finally makes it out of the shop and into the world, it outweighs all of that.

I feel like it’s worth mentioning here that this isn’t my full-time job, or even my second job. I’m an Engineer by day and a family man while my crew is awake. These days, Indexing happens between 10pm and 2am. Life is weird but I’m into it.

So yeah, I’m not trying to sell you anything. I just want to build some stuff and show it to you. If you need it, you’ll know.